Page 256 - The British Big Four

Wall Diving and the Abyss

Wall dive experience ranges from shallow water, wreck and
blue-hole dives to dramatic wall dives off the 6,000-feet-deep
Tongue of the Ocean. About 1-1½ miles off the east coast of
Andros sits the Andros Barrier Reef, the world’s fourth-largest
barrier reef.

Dive a wall and you know anything can hap- Bahamas is varied with shallow and deeper sites.
pen. The deeper the wall plunges the greater Many of the deeper sites are located in the outer
the chance of encountering a truly remarkable ex- islands and rarely visited.

perience. Sharks and other large pelagics can reg- Walls are found throughout The Bahamas
ularly be spotted at a wall’s drop-off zone. The Ba- and their profiles range from those that
hamas boost some of the sheerest walls. The walls

off of San Salvador Island can start at the 30 foot end at sand bottoms 60 to 100 feet deep, to seem-

depth. The Tongue of the Grove can result in wall ingly infinite vertical descents. It is along these

dives that plummet to 7,000 feet. On New Provi- escarpments of the deep reef that the majesty of

dence Island shark feeds occur just as the walls coral spires and the magnificence of sponges is

edge. Divers regularly spot Caribbean Reef Sharks fully realized. Seafans, bryozoans, seawhips and

during the descent into the abyss. The walls off Black Coral mix and mingle with the sponges, cre-

Bimini Island start at around 80 feet and plunge ating a garden carpet of life. More color and the

to a depth of 1,300 feet. Most wall dives in the Ba- addition of motion is provided from solitary and

hamas have a slight current and are also classified schooling reef fish.

as a drift dive. Many of the wall dives also have

coral encrusted tunnels. The topography if the